Domenico De Sole

Gucci against LVMH. De Sole, Gucci's chief executive, responded in 1999 to Bernard Arnault's LVMH quietly building a large stake by issuing new shares to an employee trust and then selling a large block to François Pinault's PPR, diluting LVMH. The courts eventually backed him. The price of escaping one luxury group was effective control by another, and he and designer Tom Ford left in 2004 after disagreements with PPR.